Maya Jackson has worked for a renowned New York City bridal gown brand for years and dreams of becoming Head Designer. She has the talent, she just needs a chance to showcase her unique style. Due to an illness, she’s always prioritized her career over her personal life until Maya’s father fractures his hip and she returns to Charleston, SC. While home for only a few months, she’s thrilled to find an opportunity at the local bridal gown boutique, never expecting sparks to fly with its owner…
A military veteran and widowed father, Derek Sullivan hopes to save Always a Bride from bankruptcy in order to preserve the legacy of his family. He also wants to reconnect with his estranged, twelve-year-old daughter, who is still recovering from the loss of her mother. The last thing he needs is a relationship with a beautiful, smart, complicated woman who will be leaving soon.
When Derek begins to fall for the lovely Maya, he knows there’s no future. But destiny has its own plans, and these two lonely people with big hearts discover that coming home to love is the best gift life can give.
Release Date: Jun 1, 2021
Heat Level: Warm
Publisher: HarperCollins
Imprint: Avon Books
Price: $10.99
I normally can appreciate when an author sprinkles in a bit of realism in my romance novels. It takes away from some of the fluff that is presented but there are times when the subject matter and how it is handle can be a bit daunting or too heavy to absorb. This is one of those rare cares where there was too much to take in and it didn’t help me with the storyline.
Maya Jackson suffers from sickle cell anemia, a debilitating disease. She has her own life goals and aspirations but she puts that on hold mainly to return home to take care of her father. Now is not the ideal time as she wanted to be the head designer at her company. Maya is strong and use to handling difficult life situations.
Derek is struggling to maintain his bridal boutique but he has so much to juggle with the shop, his daughter and the pain from losing his wife in a violent church shooting. He in introduced to Maya and can’t help his attraction to her. The author barely scratches the surfaces of Derek’s character so I didn’t connect with him outside of his own tragedy.
I kept waiting for all the warm small town romance elements to kick in. Instead, the two constantly circle each other while staying in their heads. Maya kept saying she had only a certain number of years to live. As someone who knows this disease up close and personal, I wanted her to be stronger than that. There is no guarantee how long she would live. Her harping on it so much made the romance felt slighted. There are so many adults living longer with the illness so the author’s use of ‘life expectancy’ in this way to stress the severity of the disease took away from the romantic arch.
I felt like Maya’s own internal struggles took focus of the story and while I had initially enjoyed it. After a while, I no longer cared what Maya was trying to figure out. I wanted to see more of her and Derek in a romantic way. Bottom line, the warm and fuzzies was not here and I didn’t want to be bogged down with their inner dialogue.
~ Samantha
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